Glenbard West Boys Volleyball Takes Second Place In Conference

With second place in the West Suburban Conference Silver Division on the line, the Glenbard West boys volleyball team executed like a champion.

The Hilltoppers played nearly flawlessly in the first game against host Oak Park-River Forest and parlayed that strong opening statement into a 25-15, 25-22 sweep Tuesday evening. It was their first win against OPRF and their second consecutive second-place finish in the Silver.

Glenbard West (27-6, 5-1) has won the most games in the program’s young history. Its only conference loss came to Silver champ Downers Grove North.

“We’ve had a really good season,” said Glenbard West junior outside hitter Alex Kahn, who landed a match-high 11 kills.

In Game 1, the Hilltoppers were almost perfect. They hit a ball out of bounds on the first rally, but then did not make a hitting or serving error, or any other kind for that matter, during the rest of the game, which encompassed 39 rallies.

“That’s about as perfect of a game as you can play,” OPRF coach Don August said.

Glenbard West 6-foot-7 junior outside hitter Ian Lawson was virtually unstoppable in the first game where he recorded eight of his nine kills. Five of those came as the Hilltoppers built an 11-6 advantage.

The visitors kept the Huskies on the defensive with their serving and attack. When the home team did manage to go on the offensive, Glenbard West dug many of their hits and quickly sent the ball flying back at OPRF (23-12, 4-2).

“Today was a really good game for them to do that,” Hilltoppers coach Christine Giunta-Mayer said. “I haven’t seen them do it in awhile. They were confident today.”

Holding a 16-11 lead, Glenbard West scored 8 of the next 10 points -- with the aid of blocks by Scottie Thomas, Chris Glotzbach and Adam Lepold – en route to the Game 1 victory.

It wasn’t the first time Giunta-Mayer has seen her players charge out of the gate.

“They do that,” she said. “This team has been coming out real strong and then they don’t get riled up at all. They’re a very good team.”

The Hilltoppers stayed composed in a tight second game. OPRF held a 16-15 edge, but the visitors scored the next 3 points – on a Lepold block sandwiched by two Huskies errors – to move ahead 18-16. From there, they protected a slim lead, and scored the final 2 points on a Glotzbach tip and a Kahn block.

Alex Emanuel and Glotzbach finished with 12 and 8 assists, respectively, for the winners.

Glenbard West’s defense was as good as its attack. Senior libero Kevin McGinnis wound up with 13 digs.

“Their libero played very well on defense and passing,” OPRF junior setter Diego Rodriguez-Guerrios said. “He made a lot of trouble for us.”

“Kevin McGinnis is one of the reasons why we do what we do,” Giunta-Mayer said. “You’ve got to have a good libero.”

The Hilltoppers made it difficult for OPRF to find the floor. 

“We had really good defense today,” Kahn said. “We were just on a roll. It’s good to finish off the season and go into playoffs like that.”

 Glenbard West is the third seed behind No. 1 Lake Park and No. 2 Addison Trail in the Schaumburg sectional. The Hilltoppers open against either Fenton or Rolling Meadows in the St. Charles North regional on May 24.

 “It’s been a fun season,” Giunta-Mayer said. “We want to go to state. We have to get past Addison Trail and Lake Park. Those are going to be two really tough games. They have better records than us. We have a tougher schedule.”